Drop by as artist Sylvana Barrett demonstrates materials and methods used in medieval manuscript illumination, focusing on a 14th-century technique later known as camaieu. Complements the exhibition Imagining the Past in France, 1250–1500.

Enjoy the tradition of sketching from original works of art every first and third Sunday of the month during the Getty Drawing Hour. Artist Jamie Sweetman provides general guidance; all you need to bring is drawing pads and pencils. All experience levels welcome; this program is free. Sign-up begins at 2:30 p.m. at the Museum Information Desk.

Get up close and personal with a single work of art at this half-hour, hands-on gallery experience geared for families with children ages 5 and up. Sign-up begins 30 minutes before the program at the Museum Information Desk.

Discover more about Richard Meier's architecture and the design of the Getty Center site in this 45-minute tour. Meet the docent outside at the bench under the sycamore trees near the front entrance to the Museum.

Collection Highlights TourDaily11 amMuseum Galleries, Getty Center

This one-hour tour provides an overview of major works from the Museum's collection. Meet the educator at the Museum Information Desk.

Luisa Roldán (Spanish, 1650–1704), affectionately known as La Roldana, was one of the most celebrated and prolific sculptors of the Baroque period. This intimate exhibition introduces visitors to La Roldana, whose artistic superiority catapulted her to fame at the royal court in an otherwise male-dominated profession. She ran a workshop, worked for the king, raised a family, and was a celebrity in her own day. With her polychrome sculpture of Saint Ginés de la Jara from the Getty Museum's collection as a focal point, this exhibition explores the artist's life, artistic achievement, and the multifaceted process used to create masterfully lifelike polychrome sculpture.

Foundry to Finish: The Making of a Bronze SculptureDaily through January 2, 2011North Pavilion, Plaza Level, Getty Center

Get a rare look at how bronze sculpture is born in Foundry to Finish. Visitors explore a process called direct lost-wax casting—a method that yields a single, unique bronze cast of an artist's original clay-and-wax model. Thirteen step-by-step models illustrate the sculpting and casting process. Through X-radiographs, visitors can even get a glimpse inside an original sculpture to see firsthand evidence of how the bronze was cast. The installation complements Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, an international touring exhibition also on view.

This exhibition explores representations of Mexican archaeological objects and sites made from the Colonial era to the present. Featuring images of ancient Maya and Aztec ruins by archaeologist explorers such as John Lloyd Stephens, Desiré Charnay, and Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon, the exhibition showcases depictions of the Aztec Calendar Stone and other Mexican antiquities as well as panoramic visions of Mexico—all in the context of the Spanish conquest, the 19th-century French intervention in Mexico, and the lengthy presidency of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1910). Some of the works exhibited are accurate, while others are fanciful; each portrays a distinct vision of Mexico.

Illuminated Manuscripts from Belgium and the NetherlandsDaily through February 6, 2011North Pavilion, Plaza Level, Getty Center

During the Middle Ages, the area occupied today by Belgium and the Netherlands flourished economically and artistically. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the towns of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, and Utrecht participated in one of the greatest flowerings of book illumination in Europe. This exhibition surveys the Getty Museum's holdings of medieval manuscripts from this region, including masterworks made for such influential patrons as the dukes of Burgundy—Philip the Good and Charles the Bold—and the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. After eleven weeks the books' pages will be turned to reveal further illuminated riches.

Imagining the Past in France, 1250–1500Daily through February 6, 2011Exhibitions Pavilion, Getty Center

In the Middle Ages, history played such an integral role in French culture that some of the greatest imagery of the period is found within the covers of historical manuscripts. Illuminations enabled heroic figures of the past—the biblical King David, Alexander the Great, the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne—to come alive before the eyes of medieval readers. Serving as both exciting narratives and propaganda, such images were immensely successful at the French court. On view exclusively at the J. Paul Getty Museum, this major international loan exhibition features rare manuscripts drawn from the collections of more than twenty-five of the world's most famous museums and libraries. The books are supplemented with ivories, tapestries, and metalwork that demonstrate how historical tales leapt from the illuminated page into other artistic forms.

In Focus: Still LifeDaily through January 23, 2011West Pavilion, Terrace Level, Getty Center

The term still life was coined during the 1600s, when painted examples were popular throughout Europe, and artists created increasingly complex compositions, bringing together a broad variety of objects to convey allegorical meanings. Still life featured prominently in the early photographic experiments of Jacques Louis Mandé Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneers most widely recognized for inventing the medium during the late 1830s. Since then, it has served as both a conventional and an experimental form during periods of significant aesthetic and technological change. Drawn exclusively from the Getty Museum's photographs collection, this one-gallery exhibition surveys some of the innovative ways artists have explored and refreshed this traditional genre.

Felice Beato (British, born Venice, 1832–1909) had a long and varied photography career, and of his contemporaries, covered one of the widest geographical areas—from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Establishing premier photographic studios in Yokohama, Japan, and Mandalay, Burma, he produced topographical and architectural views, portraits and studies of local life intended for Western audiences. A pioneer of war photography, he covered the Crimean War in 1856 and documented the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny in 1858 as well as chronicling the Second Opium War in China in 1860 and the American forces in Korea in 1871. The Museum's 2007 acquisition of more than 800 Beato photographs is the impetus and foundation for this exhibition—the first devoted to his <i>oeuvre</i>—represented through a selection of about 130 works.

Photography from the New ChinaDaily through April 24, 2011West Pavilion, Terrace Level, Getty Center

Providing a contrast to the nineteenth-century views of China and other parts of East Asia by Felice Beato presented concurrently in the Center for Photographs, this exhibition offers a cross section of Chinese photographs produced since People's Republic leader Deng Xiaoping introduced the current period of Opening and Reform. Highlighting the Getty's recent acquisition of photographs by Hai Bo, Liu Zheng, Song Yongping, Rong Rong, and Wang Qingsong, the show features some of the dominant styles in recent Chinese work, including performance for the camera, the incorporation of family photographs, and an emphasis on the body. Supplemented by loans of work by Huang Yan, Qiu Zhijie, and Zhang Huan, the exhibition explores such themes as prerevolutionary Chinese literati, vestiges of the Cultural Revolution, and the newly rampant consumerism.

The Secret Life of DrawingsDaily through February 13, 2011West Pavilion, Plaza Level, Getty Center

Through a focused selection of about thirty sheets, this exhibition illuminates not only how drawings in the Getty's collection were made, but how they have been studied and cared for over time. While much is known about paintings conservation, this exhibition looks at restoration techniques for works on paper, comparing old techniques with modern ones. Stories will be shared about how the Getty's paper conservators work—repairing tears and holes, removing stains and mold, and reversing the process that turns lead white pigment black. The exhibition also reveals other discoveries, such as hidden watermarks, previously unknown <i>versos</i>, and the practice of cutting and/or reassembling drawings.

A newly designed installation of medieval and Renaissance European sculpture and decorative arts is now on view in the J. Paul Getty Museum's North Pavilion at the Getty Center. Displayed with paintings, drawings, and illuminated manuscripts that enrich their context, the works of art are arranged by period and theme. The installation features innovative technologies, including interactive touch screens, that enhance the visitor's experience.

This 45-minute journey through the galleries is a fun, activity-filled experience for children (ages 5 and up) and adults to enjoy together. Space is limited. Ofrecida en español. Sign up at the Tour Meeting Place outside the Museum Entrance 15 minutes before the program.

Discover the step-by-step process of painting mummy portraits in the Museum's collection. Handle objects that reveal otherwise hidden techniques as well as the surprising tools and materials that artists used, which ranged from gold leaf and honey to rabbit-skin glue.

Collection Highlights TourWeekends11 amMuseum Galleries, Getty Villa

This one-hour tour provides an overview of major works from the Museum's collection. Ofrecida en español. Space is limited. Sign up at the Tour Meeting Place outside the Museum Entrance 15 minutes before the tour.

In 2003, the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired a collection of over 350 pieces of ancient glass, formerly owned by Erwin Oppenländer. The works on view in Molten Color are remarkable for their high quality, their chronological breadth, and the glassmaking techniques illustrated by their manufacture. The vessels are accompanied by text and videos illustrating ancient glassmaking techniques.

Roman Ephebe from NaplesDailyGetty Villa

Youth as a Lamp Bearer, a long-term loan from the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, is on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa.

Theatrical performance emerged in ancient Athens from the worship of Dionysos, the god of wine and theater. From productions in the Theater of Dionysos, the tragedies and satyr plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides as well as the comedies of Aristophanes and Menander spread throughout the Mediterranean, flourishing especially in southern Italy. There, in Magna Graecia, vase painters and sculptors created vivid depictions of dramatic scenes, representing sets, costumes, masks, choreography, and music. This major international loan exhibition is the first exploration in nearly sixty years of the many ways Greek plays and stagecraft inspired classical artists, whose works are often the only surviving evidence of the performing arts in antiquity. The exhibition coincides with the Villa's Outdoor Theater production of Sophocles' Elektra.